Having debuted at Canadian film festival Fantasia over the weekend, The Last Thing Mary Saw will receive its UK premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest on Saturday 28th August. It is the first feature film from writer and director Edoardo Vitaletti and explores religion and oppression through a period setting. Winter, 1843. A young woman is under investigation following the mysterious death of her family’s matriarch. Her recollection of the events sheds new light on the ageless forces behind the tragedy.
The Last Thing Mary Saw taps into the same vein of Robert Eggers’ The VVitch, Vitaletti conjuring up some solid sequences of extreme intensity that are thick with dread. Our story focuses on two young women, Mary (played by Insidious 3 star Stefanie Scott) and her family’s maid Eleanor (played by Isabelle Fuhrman of Orphan fame). Much to the horror of Mary’s family, the pair have fallen in love and it is this that sets in motion a deadly sequence of events.
Despite still being early in their young careers, both Scott and Fuhrman are very experienced working within horror. Their prior knowledge of the genre ensures that their performances in The Last Thing Mary Saw are elegantly detailed and they really know how to sell the bleak confines of their characters’ environments. The chemistry between the two is beautiful and they clearly formed a strong bond during filming.
Ahead of the UK premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest we spoke with both Stefanie Scott and Isabelle Fuhrman. Just to make sure the chat was as spooky as possible, our interview coincided with a thunderstorm at their end. Throughout bolts of lightning and rumbles of thunder we discussed how they connected to their characters, working with chickens, and Isabelle also shared a few little details about her return as Orphan villain Esther in Orphan: First Kill.
The Last Thing Mary Saw arrives on DVD 19th September 2022 from Acorn Media International.
